small orders of turkeys?

I am really interested in raising a few turkeys in the spring this year. The trouble is that only commercial varieties are available locally and I dont have space for the min. orders from hatcherys. I really want to stay away from the commercial varieties and get heritage type turkeys. Are there any hatcheries (or BYC members for that matter) who are willing to ship smaller ammounts? Say 5?

Let us know where you are located at and maybe someone who raises turkeys lives close by. The problem with shipping small number of birds in the box is they tend to get too cold and die. You might also want to place a "wanted" ad in your local paper or put up a notice in your local feed store.
Good luck in your search.
Sharon in NC

Check in the spring on Craigs list. I am in Northern NY and have seen a lot of adds for turkeys and poults in the spring in the Syracuse area. I bought two nice Bourbon Reds from the Watertown Craigs list this past fall and they are
now members of the family. Good luck!

Also, here's another idea, since minimum numbers are for body heat purposes during shipping, you could order as few turkeys as you want and fill the rest of the order with cheaper chicks or roos, that's what I did, besides, turkey poults aren't the brightest crayons in the box, so starting them with chicks will allow the chicks to show the turkey poults where the feed and water is.

I asked at a couple of hatcheries about buying a few turkeys and filling the order with chicks for heat and they said no, they would not mix them like that.If you know of a place that will do that, can you please post it? Thanks!

Another option might be to check LocalHarvest.com for your area. Search for the type of turkeys you want and you might find a local breeder. When I hatched out some shipped Midget White eggs, I wound up with all toms. Through Local Harvest I found someone an hour away from me who had poults for sale. I wanted to buy 5, but the seller sold me 6 for the price of 5. I paid $5 each which I thought was a great price. The poults were about 2 weeks old and all thrived. I got what I wanted and supported a local breeder.